Zuma orders talks to end strike as soldiers called in to offer services

• President is in bid to avoid a repeat of a crippling four-week strike after apartheid’s end

Johannesburg, Monday
South African President Jacob Zuma has ordered immediate talks to end a 13-day-old public service strike, his office said today, days before it threatens to embroil the pivotal mining sector.

Mr Zuma met with ministers at the weekend “and he instructed them to immediately go back to the negotiating table,” the president’s spokesman Zizi Kodwa told AFP.

South Africa’s 1.3 million strong public service union went on open-ended strike on August 18, shutting down schools and hospitals, with hundreds of thousands of mineworkers set to down tools if no deal is reached.

“From the point of view of the discussions over the weekend, there is a possibility that the strike will end in a few days to come,” Mr Kodwa told e-news television, saying parties were engaging informally on Monday.

The new talks will attempt to break a deadlock over wages with workers digging in their heels until the state meets union demands for better pay.

“It’s what we’ve been calling for — it’s a high level intervention to break the deadlock,” said Patrick Craven, the spokesman for the labour federation umbrella group Cosatu.

In a sign of growing government impatience, Mr Zuma at the weekend was confident of a deal but lashed out at striking health and education workers in a speech following his return from a state visit to China.

“The abandonment of patients, including babies in incubators, as well as schoolchildren, is difficult to comprehend and accept, no matter how sympathetic one is to the needs of workers,” he said.

Some 4,000 soldiers including doctors and nurses have been called in to provide essential medical back-up, security and cleaning services in 58 hospitals across the country.

Adding to the pressure is the threat by the powerful 320,000-member National Union of Mineworkers to hold a one-day strike in the mining, construction and energy industries on Thursday in sympathy with the public service.

Cosatu, which lists some two million members, has called on all of its affiliates to join the strike on Thursday, but is also hoping for a breakthrough.

“The federation hopes that an improved offer will now be tabled and that the strike can be settled as quickly as possible, through an agreement that is acceptable to the workers,” said Mr Craven after Zuma’s instructions to his ministers.

Workers are demanding an 8.6-pe rcent wage increase and a 1,000-rand (137-dollar, 108-euro) housing allowance. The government has signed a seven percent and 700-rand offer which it has threatened to unilaterally implement.

The state could not afford to concede to union demands but a strike at mines could affect investor confidence, said Don Ross, head of the University of Cape Town school of commerce.

“Mining losses, even though it is no longer the largest sector, may have extremely negative implications on the economy.”